This site provides news and information about the False Claims Act qui tam whistleblower law, the Tax Whistleblower law and the Securities and Commodities Whistleblower law. On this site you can learn the basics of each law and the process of bringing a case as well as read about the latest developments.

Getnick & Getnick LLP is a Manhattan-based law firm dedicated to business integrity and anti-fraud cases. Our whistleblower cases have resulted in recoveries of over a billion dollars for U.S. taxpayers.

Friday, June 08, 2007

Lancaster Community Hospital in Los Angeles paid the federal government $1.2 million to settle allegations that the hospital knowingly overbilled Medicare for physical therapy costs.

In 2004, a former employee of Certus Corp., a consulting firm that prepares cost reports for hospitals, alleged that the hospital had been deliberately misassigning physical therapy costs between 1997 and 2001 to receive higher reimbursements from Medicare. Assistant U.S. Attorney Shana Mintz said, “They were overpaid because they misassigned their costs.”

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Texas Hospital Settles False Claims Suit

The PRNewswire is reporting that Texas’ Harris County Hospital District has settled a $15M lawsuit originally filed in 2003. Whistleblower Robert E. McCaslin, Jr., a former hospital district employee, accused the district of making false Medicare and Medicaid claims between 2000 and 2005.

The federal government took over McCaslin’s suit and, under qui tam provisions, has awarded him a portion of the settlement.

Monday, June 04, 2007

Military Supplier to pay $251 K to settle Allegations they substituted Zinc for Brass

A New Jersey-based supplier of military insignia has agreed to pay more than $251,000 to settle federal claims that it supplied the U.S. military with substandard insignia, substituting zinc in place of the more-expensive brass that was required.

The government alleged in its lawsuit that Hilborn-Hamburger Inc., a Passaic, NJ company, substituted the brass in the insignia it sold to the U.S. Navy Exchange Service, a buyer for the Navy, with less expensive, and less durable, zinc and white metals, which were made to look like solid brass. The U.S. Attorney’s office in Newark announced the settlement last week.

Several major insurance companies, including Travelers, stand accused of grossly overcharging the U.S. government’s flood-insurance program in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

The allegations are part of a whistleblower lawsuit that was unsealed last week by a U.S. District Court Judge in New Orleans. The case, which was initiated by Branch Consultants of Metairie, LA, accuses eight insurers and five adjusting firms of wrongly attributing damage to flood waters to access federal flood-insurance money when the damage was actually due to wind and rain.

Click the following link to read the account of the Qui Tam case in InsuranceNewsNet.

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Whistleblower Suit Against Amerigroup Corp. Filed

The Virginian Pilot reported this week that a lawsuit has been filed against Amerigroup Corp. alleging that its Illinois health plan underpaid certain hospitals in connection with emergency services. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Illinois.

The lawsuit was filed by former employee, Colleen Batty, who worked for the company from July 2002 to October 2004, when her job was eliminated during a corporate reorganization.

This is the second lawsuit filed against Amerigroup’s Illinois health plan in the last year.